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Windows 7: Hard drive cable not sure if it needs replacing

I have an HP windows 7 64bit Fully updated via windows update.
Over the years I have slowly upgraded parts inside here and there.
One of the things I upgraded was the harddrive from 750gb to 1TB...The old one went out had bad sectors.
Everything has been working fine for years and years...recently I took some canned air and blew out the dust from inside of the computer while in conjunction holding the vacuum hose to suck up the dust. After doing that I had a couple problems with the harddrive not sure if it's going out again, the motherboard is acting up, or if the harddrive cable just needs to be replaced.
I'm pretty sure it's the harddrive cable and I can pick up another one for $6 but I wanna make sure positively before I go out and buy it.
The first thing that happened was the whole computer locked up and nothing was working not even ctrl+alt+delete. I manually turned off the computer and turned it back on. After turning it back on it was just a black screen nothing happened, I was able to table F9 and go into diagnosis and it said "boot path test, BIOHD-5" test failed.
I then restarted the computer and it said to turn off computer immediately and replace harddrive (I was in a panic) I then opened up the computer and checked all cables and connections. Completely took out the harddrive made sure there was no dust plugged it all back in. Turned the computer back on and everything was working fine, back to normal.
This morning the same thing happened, I turned the computer on started using it and again the whole computer locked up. I manually turned off the computer restarted and it said disk error ctrl+alt+delete to restart. So I again I opened the computer and checked all cables, unplugged and plugging them back in. Closed up the computer and boom started working perfectly again.
So after all is said and done what is the problem? Is the cable just old and needs replacing or the harddrive going out? Or maybe the motherboard?

It would be very difficult to wear out a cable. You could check and see if the cable has been rubbing on something causing damage. If in doubt just replace the cable.
About the only way a mortal human can test a motherboard is visual inspection or replacing it. The manufacture and/or a computer laboratory could test it.
If it was my computer after inspecting or replacing the cable I would test the hard drive with the manufactures drive test.
Another option would be.

I might go ahead and replace the cable. It's just so weird because even if it was a lose cable problem after I fixed it the first time it's strange how it happened the second time even though I didn't disturb it. The cable is short and bent over to connect at both sections.

In general knowledge though would a failing motherboard cause a problem with the harddrive as it is?

Any time you plug a cable into a computer component and it is in a strain from a sharp angle you could have poor connection. After the connection is made their should be no (zero) side pressure on the connection.
Could a motherboard cause this kind of problem; sure it can if the female connections on the motherboard has been damaged. This type of damage is normally visible and cause by not plugging cables into it properly.
I still recommend testing your hard drive first. It cost nothing but a little time. If in doubt just replace the cable. They are cheep.
Never assume their is only one problem.

The surest sign of a failing cable is CRC errors. Grab HD tune or whatever hard drive checking software and have a look at how much CRC errors there are, and if they are increasing with time.
Will also tell us how is the HDD.

I'm also suspecting the PSU. The PSU is always a suspect when there are hardware errors of some kind.

Can you check from the BIOS what are the voltages and what are the voltages when running with HW Monitor?

Download DiskCheckup, and run it (no installation required) select your hard drive and go in the tab called SMART info, scroll down and read the raw value field of "UltraDMA CRC error count".
If there is any field not tagged as OK in the status, please report it.

Write it down. After a few days of use run it again and see if the number has increased. If it has increased, the cable is either damaged or bent in a bad way. SATA cables hate being bent, must do only smooth curves. Does not damage them, but the performance will suffer.

Yes DocBrown it is Sata...I will post the other information when I can. Thank you.

EDIT: I already ran check disk and everything was fine. There was two things that it removed and then recovered but other than they everything was fine. I will still download what you provided and use that too.

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